


lavender couple

by caribouscreams



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gay Uchiha Sasuke, Gen, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Lesbian Haruno Sakura, Multi, Platonic Relationships, Team Bonding, Unrequited Love, featuring dumb gay pining for their respective blonde bfs, kakashi voice: yes im gay yes im homophobic we exist, mlm/wlw solidarity, sasusaku shippers please dont kill me, this is literally just an excuse to write a sakura/sasuke friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-01-15 11:25:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18497986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caribouscreams/pseuds/caribouscreams
Summary: A new war is brewing, Sakura can feel it—except this time, it's not a battle fought with weapons, or for the sole purpose of bloodshed. This time it's a one-sided fight between her, the last Uchiha, and all of Konoha.The village wins in the end.Or: How two-thirds of Team 7 become a not-so-hetero "couple" and the resulting aftereffects.





	1. it's not love

* * *

 

The Fourth Shinobi World War was over, and it wasn’t hard to see the changes that spread like wildfire throughout Konoha. Sakura Haruno was at the forefront of it, after all.

Her former teacher, the unlucky bastard, had been officially declared the new Hokage (no matter how much he didn’t want the title or responsibilities), and because Tsunade had left the village shortly after—and also probably because he wanted somebody to share his pain—Kakashi had put Sakura in charge of Konoha Hospital in her place. It was an honor, sure, but also an enormous, time-consuming responsibility. The hospital was still packed with injured ninjas and civilians, even after a month and a half since the war’s end. Most were just slowly recovering, but there were a few who Sakura knew would never be able to leave.

Neji was one such ninja, alive but comatose after having been miraculously saved from death.

Hinata regularly visited to bring flowers to him and to talk, and sometimes Sakura would overhear on her hospital rounds. The Hyuuga heiress usually spoke to him about how the fight with the Hyuuga elders to eradicate the Caged Bird Seal was going, and listening to her made Sakura all the more aware of both the good and bad things brought forth from the war.

The whole village was suffering from destruction and death and overall loss, but most people were actively trying to move on, to promote positive change like in Hinata’s case. Everyone was working together to heal—and surprisingly, even Sasuke Uchiha himself was proof of that.

After the war had been officially declared as over, the last Uchiha had been arrested and sentenced to death by the village elders for past acts of terrorism. It was only thanks to Naruto and Kakashi’s efforts that he was released with only a year of parole, and that then after he’d be allowed back on the active-duty ninja roster. Except, Sasuke evidently hadn’t planned to stay that long, seeing as he’d tried to leave only a week after his release.

Sakura hadn’t been there when it’d happened, had only heard about it later from Naruto himself—he’d been the one to stop Sasuke and convince him to stay. She had no clue how the Uzumaki had talked him out of it, but somehow he’d done what her past self hadn’t been able to.

From then on, she would catch glimpses of Sasuke in town, doing normal things like buying groceries or running errands. It was...weird. But even weirder was that according to Ino (who’d heard from Hinata who’d heard from Shino), he was planning on becoming an _academy teacher_.

There were a few openings and the school hadn’t started back up yet so it wasn’t technically impossible, but still...Sasuke? _The_ Sasuke? _In charge of a group of kids?_

It almost seemed like a joke. Sakura honestly didn’t think he had it in him.

Regardless, the last Uchiha’s return meant Naruto had become invested in friendship and bonding and everything it entailed even more than before. His enthusiasm somehow made it impossible to argue, and so the entirety of Team 7 had reluctantly agreed to meet up once every week to have bonding meals at Ichiraku Ramen.

‘Bonding meals’ was just a fancy way of saying her, Naruto, and Kakashi would eat together and wait around for Sasuke to inevitably not show up (his promise be damned), with sometimes Sai or Tenzou joining them as honorary Team 7 members.

The latter was few and far between, though, and apparently it wasn’t one of those rare nights where either of them joined—instead, it was a rare night where nobody showed up. _At all._

And so, somehow Sakura found herself stuck at Ichiraku’s, alone on a Friday night.

There were a few other customers at a booth on the other end of the shop, but nobody else occupied the bar where she sat with two empty bowls. She’d already ordered _and_ finished eating, so she’d taken to fiddling with her chopsticks to pass the time.

The only reason she hadn’t left yet was her guilty conscious—she couldn’t imagine Naruto getting there after she had left and thinking that nobody had shown up. He would be heartbroken. _But still…_

Her patience was running thin.

The familiar but uncomfy stool did nothing to help her aching bones or increasingly throbbing headache from work that day, so she figured she’d wait around for another ten minutes before leaving. A sigh escaped her mouth at the thought of soaking in a long, hot bath once she got home. She could almost feel the suds on her skin.

Just then, as if to burst her bubble, the curtain that served as an entrance to the ramen shop parted as someone entered.

“Sakura,” greeted a neutral voice. She looked up from where she’d been playing with her chopsticks, and fought to hide her surprise.

“Sasuke,” Sakura simply acknowledged back, and slid over to make room so he could pull up a stool beside her.

The Uchiha gestured Teuchi over to take his order—miso-tomato ramen, with extra tomatoes on the side—and after he was finished, they sat in an awkward silence. It had been a long time since her and Sasuke had been alone together, and Sakura still didn’t know how to talk to him even after everything they’d been through.

Should she ask him why now, of all times, he decided to come to their weekly meals?

See if he was settling in okay?

Or should she just keep it to small talk, the weather and such?

A thousands thoughts rushed through her head at once and _Kami_ , she’d forgotten how hard it was to socialize with the anti-social man.

Sasuke was—unbelievably—the first to speak, saving her the trouble.

“The dobe and Kakashi haven’t arrived yet?” he asked.

Sakura shook her head, tempted to sarcastically ask if it _seemed_ like they were there yet, when he inquired again, “Did the meeting time change without my knowing?”

 _Wow, speaking more than three words at a time? Impressive,_ she thought, but didn’t repeat it out loud because that was kind of unreasonably snarky.

“Nope,” she instead replied after a second, and left it at that; silence fell over them again as they waited for his ramen to arrive.

Maybe she should’ve continued the conversation with _“I mean, it’s not like I’m not used to teammates leaving. Everyone doing their own thing is nothing new.”_  

Yeah, sure, that didn’t sound petty at all. But Sakura couldn’t help it.

She could still vividly recall Naruto and Kakashi leaving her behind again and again to chase after Sasuke—and said asshole had taken advantage of it for years, how much people cared about him. In fact, he was _still_ taking advantage of it, never showing up for these stupid meals that meant the world to Naruto.

It brought up bitter, ugly feelings that Sakura thought she’d forgotten.

Trying to push them down before she said something she’d regret, Sakura recalled one of the many pieces of advice Kakashi liked to give but not take—“let sleeping dogs lie.”

_But that’s hard to put into practice when said sleeping dog is sitting next to me._

Sakura just hoped that Sasuke ate fast so she could leave soon and they could go back to avoiding each other…

Apparently, her hopes were too high—Kakashi, the irritating bastard that he was, _finally_ arrived a whooping twenty minutes later with a poor excuse of, “Sorry I’m late. There was actually a robbery on the way here that I had to help stop, and I just finished catching the guy when I realized how late it was.”

He didn’t seem surprised that Sasuke had shown up for once, or at the very least, he hid it well, and after ordering a bowl for himself, he settled in on Sakura’s right side. He didn’t have his hokage robes on (like always) and in his hands was an old, worn copy of Icha-Icha Paradise that he kept closed for the time-being, instead turning his attention towards his former students.

“So,” he started, “how’s the rekindled romance going?”

It took both her and Sasuke a minute to register the unusual words.

“Rekindled romance?” questioned Sakura, confused.

Sasuke echoed her, and his one visible brow—his hair covered the other half of his face—was drawn so high Sakura thought it might disappear into his hairline. His bowl of ramen had just arrived, but he left it untouched in favor of staring their former sensei down (without his Sharingan activated, thankfully).

Kakashi crinkled his eyes at them—he wasn’t wearing his eyepatch that night, instead opting to keep his left eye shut—and she was reminded of a wolf circling its prey.

“Well, everyone’s been talking about it. Betting on when you two’ll get together.” At Sasuke’s increasingly flabbergasted look, the Hokage hummed and elaborated, “Since the war’s over and couples keep popping up left and right, everyone seems to think you guys’ll be the next to follow.”

He shrugged like he wasn’t particularly invested in their love lives, but she knew he was secretly a huge gossip—most likely he was asking because he was one of the people betting actual money on them getting together.

“Well, too bad for them. There’s nothing there, and there never was,” Sakura assured. He had no clue how much she meant it.

“Right,” Sasuke monotonously agreed, and that must’ve used up the amount of words he was able to speak in one sitting because he finally turned to start on his food, no longer gracing them with his attention.

“Ma, really...? Even after all those years where you fawned over Sasuke, chasing after him like a lost puppy?” Kakashi teased.

Sasuke ignored his words, but Sakura felt her face heat up in mortification at the reminder of her genin days.

After doing some soul-searching, she now knew that she’d never had a real, bonafide crush on the Uchiha—but that didn’t make her past actions any less embarrassing, especially since neither Kakashi nor Sasuke himself knew of that fact.

Trying to explain it right then, though, would’ve just brought up questions that she wasn’t ready to answer. Maybe one day she’d tell them, but now wasn’t the time.

“I’m over that,” was all she said, instead.

Kakashi narrowed his single eye suspiciously at her, before shrugging.

“Fine, fine. Whatever you say,” he hummed, then reached forward to dig into the miso-eggplant ramen that had just been set in front of him. He pulled down his mask and took a single speedy bite before quickly pulling it back up—the fact that they’d all seen his face during the war hadn’t make him any more lax when eating, she’d learned.

_Prideful bastard._

“So, I ran into Naruto on the way here,” Kakashi mentioned after a few more bites.

He set down his chopsticks, apparently content for the time-being, and reached for his book. Opening Icha-Icha, he somehow managed to appear calm despite being in his thirties and still shamelessly reading erotica in public—not to mention the fact that he was the actual, _literal_ leader of their village.

“He’s not gonna be able to make it tonight,” he finished, attention seemingly absorbed by the book’s ‘plot’.

“Hn,” said the resident Uchiha intelligently. He’d probably meant to make it a noncommittal syllable, but to Sakura it sounded like a question.

Kakashi must’ve recognized the tone, too, since he explained after turning another page, “Said he couldn’t come because he’d forgotten he’d already made plans with Hinata.”

A snap came from Sakura’s left—when she turned to look, Sasuke had broken his set of chopsticks in half. He avoided her questioning gaze by flagging down Teuchi for another set, and Kakashi continued as if nothing had happened, “Ma, well—you can’t really be upset with him. Konoha’s favorite lovebirds and all, right?”

“Right,” Sakura said, regardless of if she actually agreed or not.

Everyone in the village was invested in the two after it spread that Hinata had confessed to Naruto during the war, and that he had accepted her feelings in turn. It was all that anyone gossiped about, so even the Uchiha who’d resumed eating beside her knew, surely…?

While she was busy contemplating Uchiha Sasuke’s awareness of the events surrounding him, Kakashi had somehow managed to finish all of his ramen. Even after years of sharing meals with him, she still had no clue how he managed to eat so fast.

Placing his chopsticks on the counter, Kakashi pushed back his stool.

“Well, I should be heading out soon,” he said, stashing his book in the pouch on his waist. “Important Hokage duties and all that.”

Sakura would’ve been surprised at his leaving so early if it wasn't a habit she’d come to expect. In addition to not showing up on time, the Hatake also wasn’t know for staying the entire duration of events, preferring to leave at his earliest convenience.

If she didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought that he was physically allergic to social interaction. The thought was funny, and internally, she let herself be amused by her own joke—that is, until she glanced to the side and realized that someone who was _actually_ allergic to social interaction was sitting right beside her.

 _Poor Sasuke,_ Sakura thought with fake pity, but somewhere in her she meant it.

Kakashi made to head towards the exit before pausing and turning around at the last second.

“Oh, before I go—y’know what’d really make your old, weary sensei super happy?” he asked, feigning innocence.

He gave another of his friendly-looking smiles that Sakura just _knew_ meant he was up to no good. She didn’t respond, just leveled him with her best deadpan stare. And Sasuke, living up to his emo way of life, remained silent and instead choose to brood into his empty bowl.

Unperturbed as always, Kakashi continued on, “It’d make me happy if you two found love one day, like Hinata and Naruto. And—before you go getting any wrong ideas—I’m telling you this _only_ because I want to ensure all of my students live a fulfilled life.”

_‘I want to ensure all of my students live a fulfilled life’ her ass._

He wasn’t pulling the wool over Sakura’s eyes—he must’ve bet a hefty sum if he was bringing up their love lives again in such a short period of time. Sasuke was still ignoring both of them, staring intensely into his bowl as if it held a way for him to escape the current situation. He was probably regretting showing up at all.

_Good._

“Yeah, yeah, Kaka-sensei. Whatever you say,” she tried to placate Kakashi, but he had yet to turn around and actually leave.

“Here, how about this,” Kakashi stepped closer and placed a hand on her shoulder—him casually touching her was even more intimidating that his words or smiles, considering that he usually avoided physical contact like the plague—and Sakura suddenly realized how serious he was. “Try hanging out by yourselves, just the two of you for once. Go see a movie or something together—whatever it is young people do when they go on a date.”

The word ‘date’ sent a shiver of disgust up her spine. Sakura really, really didn’t want to, but she knew if they kept arguing, it’d only lead to threats or a fist-fight or some other annoying thing that she _really_ didn’t have the time or energy to deal with. No reason to take any chances. Plus, he was technically her boss which meant he could order her to doing anything he wanted, so…

“Fine, but only once,” she said, giving up. Kakashi smiled for real at that, and awkwardly patted her shoulder.

From where he was still overlooking his bowl and brooding, Sasuke shot her a betrayed look.

She shrugged in response. That’s what he got for not contributing to the conversation.

Kakashi pulled his arm back, only to place his hand on her head and ruffle her hair like he used to when she was younger. “Thanks, Sakura. You won’t regret it.”

Doubt was the only thing that ran through her mind, but she tried to pull her lips into a smile.

“Yeah, yeah. But if nothing happens,” which she knew for sure was how it was gonna go, “you won’t bug us again—right?”

Kakashi’s face did that weird smile-thing again.

“Oh, Sakura-chan—when have I ever lied to you?”

He turned to leave before she could answer, and disappeared in a puff of smoke a second later.

If Sakura were a lesser woman, she would’ve gone after him and punched him on the spot, repercussions be damned. Instead, she clenched her fist and turned back to discuss her upcoming “date” with Sasuke, only to find that he’d disappeared at some point, too. Which meant…

They’d left the bill to her. _Great._

Teuchi eyed Sakura from where he was chatting with another customer, as if expecting her to leave without paying too. Like she was just as unreliable as her team.

That bitter feeling from before resurfaced.

Sakura was quick to distract herself by adding up the cost of all their bowls and taking out her wallet, but while she was counting out the correct amount it suddenly hit her—she'd have to clear her next day off to make time to hang out with Sasuke, which meant she’d probably have to cancel her plans for next Friday—

Ino was going to kill her.

_Fucking Kakashi. Fucking Sasuke. I swear, I’m gonna strangle both of them..._

Unsurprisingly, her angry, internal monologue lasted all the way home.

* * *

_it sinks into your head_

_hell it hurts_

_but it’s not love_

(it’s not love - lontalius)


	2. what you know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura begins to uncover the pieces that make up Sasuke, and shares a bit of herself while she's at it.

* * *

Sakura did not, in fact, wind up strangling Kakashi or Sasuke (no matter how much she wanted to)—instead, she found herself agreeing to breakfast at the Uchiha’s apartment the coming Friday.

It was Sakura’s day off from work, and she’d already made plans with Ino during the afternoon, so the early meal meant she didn’t have to cancel. And Sasuke hadn’t specified what, but apparently he had something to do later in the day, too, so it worked out for him as well.

Of course, he hadn’t originally suggested his house, but she’d immediately made it clear that they were _not_ going to eat at her apartment. And since he didn’t like going out into public without a good reason, a cafe or restaurant was off the list too. In the end, he reluctantly invited her over and agreed to cook for both of them. She wasn’t looking forward to the likely subpar meal, but at least it was free.

As she went through the week leading up to the dreaded day, the only thing that kept her at bay was the fact that she’d get to hang out with Ino and shit-talk Sasuke immediately after. Sakura was, as she found herself often, reminded of another of Kakashi’s quotes.

_There’s always a silver lining,_ the man liked to say. Granted, for him that usually meant exploiting someone’s weakness or picking fun at them, but to each their own.

And speaking of her old sensei, not once she did she run into him the week after their dastardly team bonding meal. But that was expected—regardless of how he acted, he _was_ the Hokage, which meant he was usually bombarded with work, similar to her.

The only reason she knew he was aware of her and Sasuke’s ‘date’ was a grand bouquet of red roses that was sent to her office on Thursday. If the weird scrawl that filled up the card didn’t spell out Kakashi as the culprit, the message itself did.

_'Congratulations, Mrs. Future Uchiha! You’ve just won a free bouquet for you or your loved ones! Hope all is well!’_ read the front of the card in mismatched letters that her former teacher had picked up from copying countless other people’s handwriting styles. The back had a messy drawing of a man winking and a tiny, almost illegible, _‘P.S. In case you couldn’t get the hint, give these to Sasuke on your date tomorrow. Good luck.’_

Kami, he was really pushing it. But what could she do—she’d already agreed to his original idea, so what was one more needle in the haystack?

Sakura ended up bringing the flowers home that night and putting them in a vase for the time-being. Tomorrow she’d make it clear to Sasuke that Kakashi had gotten them for her to give to him. Just so he didn’t go getting any wrong ideas.

That night, her dreams were plagued with some of her worse memories of the past, and a dip into her once-upon-a-time possible future. She dreamt her and Sasuke got together, for real, and they had a little girl who Sasuke never saw grow up because he left again.

Sakura knew it wasn’t realistic—the Uchiha would never leave with Naruto here, not after his last attempt—but she still woke up with bile in her mouth and sweat soaking her clothes.

She didn’t feel like doing anything after such a horrible dream, but the clock read 6:57 a.m. and she’d promised to meet Sasuke at 8:00. So, forcing herself to get up and trek across her apartment to get to the bathroom, she went through her morning routine like clockwork. Brush her hair, brush her teeth, stare into the mirror and contemplate life and death for a full ten minutes—just the usual.

It didn’t feel different than any other day except for when Sakura went to get put on her work clothes and realized that she could dress nicer than she usually did—a pair of black overalls with a flower-patterned white t-shirt underneath, brown sandals, and a black sun hat was what she decided on after a half hour of contemplation. Ino had mentioned how she liked the shirt and hat before, and the thought of getting another compliment from the Yamanaka made her look forward to the coming afternoon.

Sakura left ten minutes before eight, bouquet in hand, and hoped she’d have enough time to find Sasuke’s house.

The east side of village—in the complete opposite from the deserted Uchiha compound, interestingly enough—was where she found herself after a few minutes.

The building that Sakura stood looking up at must’ve been one of the few that had survived the war, old-looking and lacking in any recent reconstruction. The dull sign out front read _Happy Trails Apartments_ —just like Sasuke had written in his directions for her—and the irony of the name made her snort a little before entering. His apartment was on the last floor, so she took to the stairs and let her mind wander in the meantime.

Internally, she debated what the inside of his apartment might look like.

Maybe he’d have unwashed clothing lying around, dirty dishes taking up the sink and counter—except, that sounded like her apartment instead of his, so she was probably self-projecting. She mentally shrugged; she’d see when she got there.

Sakura arrived on the third floor and easily found his door, which was eloquently labeled # _317_. Before knocking, though, she gave herself a moment to prepare for the headache she’d surely leave with.

It wasn’t too late to go back, a voice in the back of her head whispered, but standing him up...that would’ve made her a coward. And she was done with the days where that was all she was known as.

Nodding her head in determination, Sakura resolved to not back out and brought her hand up to give a heavy knock on the door before she could change her mind.

It only took Sasuke a minute to open up, and the first thing she noticed was that his hair was out of his face and pulled back into an awkward ponytail, which meant that both of his eyes were exposed. He kept the left closed, presumably to hide the Rinnegan, and the action reminded her of Kakashi.

The second thing she noticed was the casual choice of clothing he was wearing—black slippers, simple black sweatpants, and a plain white t-shirt that featured a steaming cup of what she assumed was tea.

_How...not like Sasuke,_ Sakura noted.

All throughout her childhood, Sasuke was known as the beautiful prodigy (with Naruto and herself the feral troublemaker and useless fangirl respectively), and it wasn’t hard to see how’d he’d earned the ‘beautiful’ part of his title—his hair had always been immaculate, his clothes a combination of both fashionable _and_ useful, but also never built for comfort.

Apparently, he was there in all of his sweatpants-wearing and ponytail-having glory today just to prove her wrong.

The man stared down at Sakura with a deeper frown than his usual one, and she realized how dressed up she was. As if it were a real date—

The thought brought a bitter taste to her mouth, and she quickly opened her mouth to clarify.

“I told you, I’m hanging out with Ino later—we’re planning to go window shopping and try out a new sweets shop, and since the weather’s so nice…”

Sakura felt stupid, over-justifying her choice in clothing on her one precious day off, but she didn’t want him to misunderstand. She was only doing this to please Kakashi.

Oh, that reminded her—

“These are from Kaka-sensei. He told me to give them to you,” she said, and held out the bouquet of roses.

Sasuke eyed the flowers cautiously as if they were coated in poison and would kill him the moment he touched them, but took the bouquet nonetheless.

“Come in,” he invited her in after a moment—not a hint of welcoming in his voice—and she entered after him.

They entered into what appeared to be the living room, and even though Sakura thought she’d had no expectations, it definitely wasn’t what she’d pictured. Not only was it clean and orderly, but everything—from the light grey walls to the off-white curtains to the black plush rug and couch—matched perfectly, and from what she saw, he had no knick knacks lying around or pictures on the walls. Not that she’d hoped he’d have any photos of Team 7, but...it felt a little bare. Almost unlived in.

Telling her to wait there, Sasuke left into another room, probably to put the flowers away.

Sakura moved towards the couch, which was covered in sunlight from the morning sun peeking through the window, to sit down—but curled up on it, bathing in the golden rays, was a tiny bundle of fur.

“ _You have a cat?_ ” Sakura called out, shocked, and slowly began to approach the feline, who’d peeked an eye open to watch her curiously.

“Hn,” Sasuke answered stiffly, entering the room to stand in the doorway. “Naruto got her for me. As a housewarming gift.”

The cat sniffed Sakura’s hand when she held it out, but must not’ve deemed her an important enough distraction because she closed her eyes again and fell back asleep. The woman got up from where she’d crouched down to make eye contact with the feline and tried not to feel disappointed at being ignored.

_Apparently Sasuke and his cat have a lot in common,_ she thought.

Instead of saying that particularly mean phrase out loud, though, she sat to the left of the comfortable-looking pet and responded to his previous words.

“That’s kinda understandable—I guess I can see you as more of a cat person.”

He didn’t confirm nor disconfirm it, instead studying the plain clock that hung above the couch. It read 8:18, and Sakura spoke again after a full ten seconds had passed.

“Are you?” she asked, curious.

Sasuke must’ve tuned out all of her words because when he turned to look at her, his posture was awkward.

“Am I what?”

“A cat person,” Sakura repeated.

“Oh—I guess, yeah.” His tone was still deadpan, but he eyed the cat with a fond expression—it was a look Sakura hadn’t seen in years. Nostalgia hung over her head, heavy, and she spoke to dispel it.

“What’s her name?”

Sasuke looked away—that seemed to be a reoccurring habit of his, she’d discovered—before answering.

“Tommy.”

“Tommy?” Sakura parroted.

It was an unusual name for a cat, but after learning the shocking truth about the Uchiha’s ability to care for a living animal and wear sweatpants, it wasn’t that hard to believe—

“Short for tomato. Since she’s red...” Sasuke elaborated.

—okay, nevermind. Color her surprised.

Sakura couldn’t help but giggle at the thought of an S-Class criminal like Sasuke naming his pet after his favorite food. He must’ve thought she was making fun of him, though, because his face scrunched up at her laughter.

“Naruto named her,” he claimed, defensive.

Sakura struggled to stop laughing, then shrugged nonchalantly when she finally succeeded.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say—” she let out one last involuntary snort, and Sasuke looked like he was going to combust from either anger or embarrassment. (Okay, not really. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t emote much, but she liked to dream.)

Changing the subject to give him a break, Sakura hummed thoughtfully.

“Either way, I’m jealous. My apartment won’t let me keep any pets—not like that matters, though, since I wouldn’t ever be home to take care of them anyways, but _still_. I could always just keep fish or something...”

Sasuke didn’t respond verbally to that, but she could read enough of brooding-asshole body language to tell that he was confused. If she had to take a guess, it was in response to her statement about not being home a lot.

“Because I’m technically in charge of the hospital now,” Sakura explained, and waited for a realization on his end. She got none—if anything, he seemed even more puzzled.

“Y’know, since Tsunade-shishou left…?”

Surely he’d recognize that event—he knew Kakashi was the new Hokage, after all, so he had to of known what happened to the previous—but his face remained unchanging, as if he didn’t didn’t speak the same language as her.

“You didn’t know till just now?” she guessed, and he nodded.

“I didn’t. Nobody told me...”

Well, that confirmed Sakura’s assumptions, and she sighed.

“Yeah, I figured you didn’t. Though I’m surprised Naruto isn’t keeping you up-to-date on everything under the sun—I swear, that man can’t go a minute without bragging about Hinata or...”

Sakura trailed off at the weird expression that flashed across Sasuke’s face, her curiosity peaking.

“What?” she asked, and sat up a little to give him her full attention.

“Hn,” he gave a non-answer, dismissive, and pushed up from where he’d been leaning on the door frame. “The food’s going to get cold—wait here while I go get it. Since I don’t have a dining room, we’ll eat in here.”

That was...a lot of words for Sasuke to speak in one breath, so he must’ve _really_ been avoiding the topic if he was willing to go to such lengths to change the subject.

Sakura tucked that bit of information away in her brain for later, and nodded.

“Sounds good. Need any help?” she offered, even though she already knew the answer.

“No. I’ll be right back,” he said, just like she predicted, and left.

Sakura leaned back into the soft plush of the couch and kept track of time while she waited.

The clock, upside down from her perspective, read 9:06 when Sasuke left, and by the time he came back it’d moved to 9:26—much longer than it took to make up two plates with a simple meal of rice, eggs, and bacon.

Sakura didn’t question why he’d taken so long, though, just thanked him when he set a plate down in front of her. He placed his own plate on the opposite of the coffee table and sat on the ground so they were facing each other.

The added height from the couch made her feel a little powerful, she had to admit, since now _she_ was the one looking down on _him_.

After saying a quick thanks for the meal, Sakura dug in with the blue utensils he’d provided. Sasuke did the same, but with a fork instead of the customary chopsticks. As she chewed and watched him eat, she decided to ask.

“What’s up with the fork?”

Sasuke, for once in his life, didn’t throw a fit at the question. He must’ve still been drained from her earlier interactions with him.

After finishing his mouthful of eggs, he softly admitted, “...it’s easier than chopsticks.”

It clicked.

“Oh, right,” she allowed sheepishly.

Sakura called herself an expert, a medical-nin among medical-nin, yet her first thought hadn’t been that Sasuke was using a fork because he was _literally missing an entire arm?_

_No,_ that was _too_ obvious.

_Stupid, insensitive Sakura,_ she berated, and would’ve mentally beaten herself up for the remainder of the meal if Tommy, who was still curled up beside her, hadn’t sat up right then.

The cat, most likely woken up at the scent of food, sleepily rose and stretched, then took a minute to survey her surroundings. She apparently decided that Sakura looked the most inviting, because a second later found her curling up on the woman’s lap, purring.

Simultaneously surprised and delighted, Sakura a brought up a hand to scratch at the cat’s chin.

“She probably just wants your food,” said the Uchiha, who was watching the exchange.

Sure enough, a second later Tommy reached out and successfully snagged a piece of bacon from her chopsticks, which she happily gobbled up. Sakura couldn’t it in herself to be mad when the cat was so cute, though, so she just giggled and resumed petting her.

“This isn’t as bad as I thought it’d be, to be honest,” Sakura admitted, because the food wasn’t bad—better than what she could make, anyways—and she’d gotten to meet such a sweet cat.

Sasuke’s mouth scrunched deep into a frown at her words, and after a moment’s consideration, he opened his mouth and deadpanned, “Sakura, I don’t like you.”

Well, there went her good mood.

Sakura stopped petting Tommy and mirrored his frown.

“Gee, thanks. I take back what I just said—I hate this.”

Sasuke put down his fork and proceeded to rest his palm flat on the coffee table as if he were about to lecture a child. When he spoke, it was in a condescending tone.

“No, you don’t. You like it, and I can’t let that happen again,” he said, like that explained anything.

Sakura couldn’t even begin to put her confusion into words.

“What’re you talking about? Let what happen again?” she asked.

Wrinkles appeared above Sasuke’s forehead as his frown deepened even further, almost comically.

Beginning to rub at his temple—as if he were the one with the headache, not her—he elaborated, “A repeat of when we were genin—when you threw yourself all over me at any chance you got. I refuse to deal with _that_ again.”

The words made the air awkward, and Sakura realized what Sasuke was implying— _he thought she was still a fangirl._

Had he not seen how far she’d come since then? How many leaps and bounds she’d made? She was a respected ninja, but the absolute bastard was ignoring that in favor of talking down to her like he’d always done.

In a split second, she went from confused to absolutely livid.

“What the _fuck,_ Sasuke, _”_ she ground out, and he jumped at the unexpected curse. “You think you’re so great that a girl can’t come over to your house and have a meal with you without them wanting to get in your pants?”

Sasuke looked directly at her—for once in his life!—but didn’t respond, expression like he wanted to say something but was holding back. So if it wasn’t because of his massive ego, then...

“Oh, it’s just because it’s me—it’d be different if it were anyone else, huh,” Sakura guessed, and he didn’t disagree. How _dare_ he. “Well, just so you know, I _never_ liked you.”

It definitely wasn’t the best time to explain her whole enlightening and the jazz, but Sakura was in too far to back down.

Sasuke didn’t hesitate to respond, her admission not phasing him.

“Of course you did.”

“I didn’t!” she insisted, getting worked up, “If you’d listen to me, I can explain.”

Sasuke turned around to stare out the window, a clear indicator of his backing out of the conversation.

“Sasuke—” Sakura called, trying to get his attention, but he interrupted her.

“It’s time you left.”

His statement was clear-cut, but she wasn’t finished. _Not by a long shot._

“No! You started this—let’s finish this conversation like adults.”

“ _Sakura,_ ” Sasuke ground out, but she didn’t let him get any further.

“That’s all you ever do, isn’t it—leave and make everyone else deal with your problems. It’s what you did to me and Naruto, and now—”

Suddenly, at the mention of their third teammate, Sasuke spun around.

“ _I don’t like women!_ ”

Sasuke’s shout startled Tommy into leaping off her lap, and Sakura watched her disappear into another room before the words registered in her brain. Once they did, she turned to Uchiha who, in an uncharacteristic show of weakness, was running his hands through his hair—he rarely ever raised his voice, let alone yelled, so the intention behind the simple sentence must’ve been serious.

_He couldn’t mean…?_

“Sasuke, are you—?”

“Nevermind, forget everything I just said,” he hastily demanded, but that was enough of an answer for her.

“Oh.” Sakura took a minute to process it. Then, realizing the implication of what exactly that meant, let out an excited exhale. “ _Oh._ ”

Maybe there was another silver lining to this whole ‘date’— _besides Tommy, of course._

Sakura tried to give the Uchiha a reassuring smile, to let him know that she understood, _she really understood_ , but he wouldn’t make eye contact. His eye bore into his remaining eggs so hard she thought they might go from over-easy to scrambled under the intensity of his gaze.

Sasuke clearly wasn’t going to look at her, so Sakura decided to try being verbal—his weakness—with her support.

“Sasuke, it’s okay,” she started, “I understand. You’re—”

His eye suddenly shot up, the Sharingan reflected from within the deep onyx depths.

“Shut up. Tell anyone what you just heard and I’ll kill you,” he warned, voice desperate, and her blood began to boil.

He was _threatening_ her? Oh, that was the last straw.

Sakura stood up, slamming her fist on the coffee table just hard enough to make it shake and dislodge their plates, before gritting out, “I guess the stick that was always up your ass when we were genin is still stuck there, _huh_?”

Speechless, Sasuke actually had the gall to look offended.

“Newsflash, Sasuke,” she continued, leaning in, “just because you’re upset and scared doesn’t give you the right to be such a fucking asshole—especially when all I was going to say was _you’re just like me_.”

Sasuke, who had been in the middle of opening his mouth to insult her or something similar, paused. Visible confusion, not just the usual aura of confusion, passed across his face.

“What are you talking about?” he asked, hesitantly standing to meet her head-on.

Sakura made sure to stare him directly in the eye when she said, “Exactly what you meant earlier.”

There was silence, and then a faint trace of something—hope?—flashed across the Uchiha’s face. Sakura felt her anger fizzle out at that—she couldn’t be upset with him when she personally understood the fear that he’d felt at accidentally giving away such a huge secret. They were one and the same, after all.

Sasuke took a minute to contemplate her words, and doubt filled his voice when he asked, “But then why—?”

“I didn’t understand back then,” she cut in, already knowing what he was going to bring up, “I thought crushes were when you felt admiration towards someone, and since everyone looked up to you, and all the girls liked you—I guess I wanted to be like that, too. It wasn’t until after you left that I realized I—I’ve never liked you like that, y’know? For years, I was just copying everyone else. But now…” She couldn't find anything else to say, and she’d started to realize how silly it sounded, so she ended her explanation with a small “...yeah.”

Sasuke’s expression still hadn’t gone back to completely neutral, but his Sharingan had faded and his voice was steady when he asked, “You’re sure...?”

“Really _really_ sure,” Sakura instantly assured, because if there was one thing she was one-hundred percent positive about, it was that.

Sasuke sat back down softly, and if she were to guess what he was feeling right then, it’d be dumbstruck.

“Oh,” he said simply, staring up at her.

Glad that the tension had disappeared, Sakura copied him and made herself comfortable on the couch again.

“I was going to explain it to you earlier, but then you freaked out.” _Granted, she had too, but that was beside the point._

Sasuke glanced down, and if her eyes didn’t deceive her, he actually looked guilty.

“I wasn’t expecting that, so...” he paused, and it was clear he wasn’t done speaking, so she waited. After a moment of confliction, he allowed a hesitant “sorry.” The word was spoken softly, and hit her like a ton of bricks.

_Holy. Shit._

Sakura felt like pinching herself just to check if she was dreaming—or form the Kai sign, maybe it was a genjutsu—because not once, at any point in her almost eighteen years of life, had she actually heard him _apologize._

The Uchiha looked like he wanted to evaporate into thin air, so she hurriedly assured, “It’s _fine_ —” Her voice cracked, so she tried again, “It’s alright, I’m surprised too! I mean, I’ve never met somebody else like me—I always thought I was the only one in the village.”

“Hn,” Sasuke agreed plainly, and he must’ve been exhausted from their whole exchange because he leaned forward to rest his head against the coffee table, ignoring the splattered egg remains and bits of rice from Sakura’s earlier outburst.

“Sorry, uh, about breakfast,” Sakura apologized, and then, without thinking, “I won’t do that next time.”

From where it was smushed into the table, Sasuke’s face contorted in, yet again, visible confusion.

“Next...time…?"

He sounded out the words as if they were foreign, and Sakura would’ve made sure her assumption was alright if the word ‘time’ didn’t ring a bell in the back of her mind.

Glancing up at the clock, she let out a curse at what she saw—10:11.

“Shit—I was supposed to meet up with Ino ten minutes ago!”

Sakura sprung up and made towards the door, before stopping short and turning.

If she didn’t ask now, Sasuke would probably go out of his way to avoid her and pretend nothing had happened—and she couldn’t have that, now that she knew there was someone like her out there.

Her shout had startled the Uchiha up into a sitting position, and the sight of egg and rice scattered in his hair would’ve made her comment if she’d had more time.

Instead, she smiled and hurriedly offered, “Let’s do this again sometime. Not as a date like Kakashi wants, but as friends.”

Sasuke gave her a weird look, but responded with a noncommittal, “Hn.”

Taking that as a yes, Sakura’s smile brightened.

“Nice! I’ll treat you next time!”

Without waiting to see hear his reply, she left in a hurry.

When Sakura had finally met up with Ino and apologized for being late, she didn’t share the details of her date like she’d planned—her and Sasuke were actual, real allies now, and she had no plan of betraying him anytime soon.

* * *

_and i can tell just what you want_

_you don't want to be alone_

_and i can't say it's what you know_

_but you've known it the whole time_

(what you know - two door cinema club)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me? Portraying both Sakura AND Sasuke as dumb gays?? It's more likely than you think...
> 
> Gave Sasuke a cat just because I could. And still don't have a regular update schedule yet, but it do be like that sometimes,,,
> 
> Edited a bit of the first chapter, so go reread that if something doesn't make sense!
> 
> And once again, huge thanks to my wonderful beta-reader ShadowLikesPie! ^^

**Author's Note:**

> me, at 3am: i can't find any good mlm/wlw solidarity fics so i GUESS i'll just have to write them myself,,,,
> 
> This is my first time posting, so hopefully it goes well? I do have more chapters planned, but who knows when those'll be finished. Comment what you liked/constructive criticism if you get the chance—it really helps!
> 
> My amazing beta-reader is ShadowLikesPie; thanks for the help m'dude! ^^


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